열린장관실

Welcoming Speech by H.E. Mr. Kim Sung-Hwan
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea
at the Private Sector Forum
30 November 2011, Busan

H.E. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations,
H.E. Angel Gurria(앙헬 구리아), Secretary-General of the OECD,
Excellencies and Distinguished Participants,

(Introduction)

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Korea, I would like to extend a most warm welcome to all of you.  I want to begin by expressing our deep thanks to the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Global Compact, and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD for all their hard work in co-organising this meaningful meeting.  My special thanks go also to the local co-organisers: the Federation of Korean Industries and the United Nations Global Compact Korea Network.

The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness aims to broaden and deepen partnerships for effective development cooperation including public and private actors.  This is as part of the efforts to respond to the increasing demand for better development results and to the evolving global development landscape.  My government, as the host of this event, greatly values the partnership with the private sector for achieving our shared development goals.  In this regard, for the first time, over 100 representatives from the private sector have participated in the Busan forum as full members of the broader effectiveness partnership, including large and small firms from both developed and developing countries. 

(Private Sector and Global Development Efforts)

At this critical juncture in the process of development cooperation, the private sector is emerging as an increasingly important player.  Indeed, the business community is an invaluable source of innovation and development resources and a broker of local and global development partnerships.  Development challenges such as the remaining poverty gap, economic instability, continuing fragility, food shortages and aggravating climate change call for further private investment and entrepreneurship. Certainly these are conducive to creating jobs, goods and services and generating public revenues, all of which are essential for inclusive and sustained growth.

(The Role of the Private Sector in Korea’s Development Experience)

I would like to briefly share with you some reflections on Korea`s development experiences accelerated by public-private co-operation.  By leveraging foreign aid and public policy support, the private sector has played a catalytic role in directing other development resources and become an engine for growth in the process of the Korean economy, being transformed from the level of absolute poverty to a competitive, knowledge-based, greener economy.  Drawing upon our own experience, Korea, as the Chair of the G20 Seoul Summit last year, worked to incorporate the lessons on private sector engagement in shaping the G20 development agenda. Accordingly, ‘private investment and job creation’ was included as one of the nine pillars of the Multi-Year Action Plan to promote resilient and inclusive growth in developing countries.

To foster a more robust private sector role in development, I would like to highlight that priority should be placed on creating an enabling environment in which responsible private investors can expect profits or gains from investment. The public-private cooperation should also be promoted in such a way that core business activities are in line with development objectives. 

Closing

Taking this opportunity, I would like to commend the Informal Group on the Role of the Private Sector for their hard work in the development of a Joint Statement on Expanding and Enhancing Public and Private Co-operation for Broad-based, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth which is expected to be endorsed for the first time by both representatives from the public and the private sector.  I am pleased to reaffirm that Korea stands ready to join this initiative. A new and inclusive Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation to support and ensure accountability for the implementation of the Busan outcome document is expected to be established. Korea supports and welcomes the active participation of the private sector in the post-Busan follow-up as an equal partner in development.

I am confident that our deliberations today will indeed contribute greatly to the formulation of concrete and forward-looking strategies for the engagement of the private sector and serve to strengthen public-private partnership in development.  And I trust that these shall be a source of real inspiration as we work together in pursuit of our common goal of building more inclusive and effective partnerships for development.

Thank you.